Tales from the Arabic — Volume 02 eBook

When Galen saw what appeared to him of the [mock]
physician’s incapacity, he turned to his disciples
and pupils and bade them fetch the other, with all
his gear and drugs. So they brought him into
his presence on the speediest wise, and when Galen
saw him before him, he said to him, ‘Knowest
thou me?’ ’ No,’ answered the other,
‘nor did I ever set eyes on thee before this
day.’ Quoth the sage, ‘Dost thou
know Galen?’ And the weaver said, ‘No.’
Then said Galen, ’What prompted thee to that
which thou dost?’ So he related to him his story
and gave him to know of the dowry and the obligation
by which he was bound with regard to his wife, whereat
Galen marvelled and certified himself of the matter
of the dower.

Then he bade lodge him near himself and was bountiful
to him and took him apart and said to him, ’Expound
to me the story of the phial and whence then knewest
that the water therein was that of a man, and he a
stranger and a Jew, and that his ailment was indigestion?’
’ It is well,’ answered the weaver. ’
Thou must know that we people of Persia are skilled
in physiognomy[FN#23] and I saw the woman to be rosy-cheeked,
blue-eyed and tall. Now these attributes belong
to women who are enamoured of a man and are distraught
for love of him;[FN#24] moreover, I saw her consumed
[with anxiety]; wherefore I knew that the patient was
her husband. As for his strangerhood, I observed
that the woman’s attire differed from that of
the people of the city, wherefore I knew that she
was a stranger; and in the mouth of the phial I espied
a yellow rag,[FN#25] whereby I knew that the patient
was a Jew and she a Jewess. Moreover, she came
to me on the first day [of the week];[FN#26] and it
is the Jews’ custom to take pottages[FN#27]
and meats that have been dressed overnight[FN#28]
and eat them on the Sabbath day,[FN#29] hot and cold,
and they exceed in eating; wherefore indigestion betideth
them. On this wise I was directed and guessed
that which thou hast heard.’

When Galen heard this, he ordered the weaver the amount
of his wife’s dowry and bade him pay it to her
and divorce her. Moreover, he forbade him from
returning to the practice of physic and warned him
never again to take to wife a woman of better condition
than himself; and he gave him his spending-money and
bade him return to his [former] craft. Nor,”
added the vizier, “is this more extraordinary
or rarer than the story of the two sharpers who cozened
each his fellow.”

When King Shah Bekht heard this, he said in himself,
“How like is this story to my present case with
this vizier, who hath not his like!” Then he
bade him depart to his own house and come again at
eventide.

The Twenty-First Night
of the Month.

When came the night, the vizier presented himself
before the king, who bade him relate the [promised]
story. So he said, “Hearkening and obedience.
Know, Out